Where in the world is Ashley Churchill?

Hey guys. It's 2:30 in the morning and I have a flight at 6, so sleeping is a bit out of the question. Cape Town was really great. It fealt amazing being part if civilized society again. I really missed that in Tanzania. Like I said, by days end tomorrow, I will be in Zambia to enjoy everything Victoria Falls have to offer. My current plans are to bungi jump off the bridge and to abseil in the gorge. I haven't really done either sport yet. So I'm really looking forward to it. I hear that Livingstone (in Zambia), is the adventure-seakers dream town. More so than Queenstown, New Zealand. We'll see.

I did some really cool things in Cape Town. The first tour I went on was a bike tour of the winelands. BIKES AND WINE DO NOT GO TOGETHER! But it was still alot of fun. The first Dutch explorers started the vinyards and now South Africa is one of the biggest wine regions in the world. The next day I went on a tour of the townships and Robben Island (One of the prisons where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated).

It was all about how the apartheid affected people of all races and how the government ran people out of their homes. While many of Cape Town's real estate is georgeous, they still have the shanty towns. The current government is trying to get rid of them and put place people regular lower income housing. But even those are more expensive to maintain than the shanties (or 'informal structures', as they call them). Where talking about scraps of metal people. And the people that live in them actually preferr it because they own the shanties, while they may be forced to rent other housing. Robben Island was really eye opening. This is where political prisoners were kept. I saw the cell that Nelson Mandela was in and everything.

Today I went to 'Table Mountain'. And no, I didn't climb this one. I took a cable car to the top. It was really amazing to see the whole city from up there. It wasn't even that clear of a day and you could still see so much. At the top of Table Mountain, you are at 1086 m about sea level. And it was really high up from everything else. And I couldn't beleive that on my first day on Kilimanjaro, I had reached that altitude on foot.

There is still more that I'd like to see and do in Cape Town, but that will have to wait until next time.

Peace out

AC

Parsley and I
Every one back home wanted me to do ONE thing in regards to my trip to Africa. Bring home an African baby. Even though I wasn't ever actually going to do it, I am really upset that the Tanzanian government requires prospective parents to maintain residency in Tanzania for 18 months. The main problem is that most people looking to adopt will pass over Tanzania in favour of a country where the process doesn't require a move. The baby in the pic, Parsley, isn't actually a baby. He looks about 9 months old, but is actually 22 months. He is HIV positive and hasn't grown since arriving at the Kili Kids orphanage in November, despite his very healthy appitite. And to top it off, he has been sick and hospitalized for a few weeks now. Its hard to beleive that there is ANY justice in the world when you're holding an innocent baby that has one of the world's most elusive diseases. The images of his little body fighting for his life will stay in my memory forever.

AC

PS, I need to thank Gabi immensely for taking such an adorable picture of Parsley and I. Thanks Gabi!

Hey guys. So far I've climbed Kilimanjaro, gone on safari, taught a girl to read (in a language that I don't exactly understand myself), took a weekend trip to Zanzibar, learned a tiny bit of swahili and thus far I've only had one really bad sunburn. So everything is going swimmingly.

Before coming to Tanzania, I didn't have any plans to go to South Africa. Its really far away and I thought I'd put it off until later. However, it turns out that I cannot get to Victoria Falls without a stop in SA. So it looks like I'm going there anyway. Should be awesome. I can't wait to start enjoying the perks of modernized life again; washer/dryers, decent coffee, air con. I can't wait. I'm really starting to feel Amish here in the African bush. I'll keep you all informed of my plans as I finalize them.

As an athiest, I never really do anything for easter. But this weekend we all went to our driver's house for lunch. He has an absolutely adorable family and the food was delish! Hasn't restored my faith in anything, but it was a nice afternoon out.

Peace out.

AC

About to go snorkelling

So I just got back from my weekend away at the small island community of Zanzibar. I don't know how they get away with it to the point that they even bother at all, but people are constantly trying rip travellers off. We arrive at Mercury's, a tribute to Freddy Mercury in restaurant form, and they guy trys to charge me extra for my drink. One little slice of awesomeness is the drink itself. Its called the 'Toronto Tumbler'. How cool is that?

After our drinks, we all pile into the van and take off for our hotel. An hour and half later, we arrive. We literally spent more time in the van than on the plane. Then the hotel staff try to get us to pay them for our rooms that were already paid for. But we eventually smoothed things out.

Zanzibar is roughly 90% muslim. So it really isn't to any surprise that our hotel turned out to be muslim. You know what that means? NO BOOZE! But I survived, like I always do. The beach and the hotel were absolutely gorgeous.

Our first full day was mainly spent on the beach. After breifly walking in the Zanzibar Channel, I did not reapply sunblock fast enough and before I knew it, my little feet became a lovely shade of crimson.

The rest of the day was spent searching out any sliver of shade to keep my poor tootsies safe. But I was far from the worst of the burn victims. That award goes to Megan, with her full body burns. But everyone came back atleast a little peachy, so we weren't alone.

Next day, we went to the Island of Pemba to try our hands at snorkelling. After taking the usual precautionary Gravol, I jump on board the boat. Once we reach our desired spot, we all jump in. The waves were REALLY choppy. I really started to tire myself out just trying to stay close to the boat. After a while, I got back on board for a break. Not too much later, everyone else followed suit. And not too long after that, I was reminded of what I had for lunch...twice. I immediately went into the fetal position and stayed there until we were on dry land. And in this case, I wasn't alone either. All but one of us was sick. That is how choppy it was. Another huge annoyance was the jellyfish. Everyone was stung atleast once. But most of them were really small. So lucklily, none of us had to squat on another. Once on land again, I went straight to my room and hid under the covers for a good two hours.

We had dinner that night at Cinemon. A very posh seaside establishment catering to Russian mobsters, their trophy wives, and the ever so swanky backpackers. I had the pumpkin and feta salad . Seriously, I've never had so much pumpkin in my life since coming to Tanzania. And I don't see any pumpkin patches anywhere. I'm deffinately googling pumpkin recipes when I return home.

The next day we went on a spice tour, city tour, and I went on a monky tour. I really liked the spice tour. We saw various spices in their initial state. Didn't care for the city tour too much. The monkies were sooo adorable.

While I was checking out the monkies, the rest of the group were still in town. That is when the driver decides to drive away with all of their stuff in the van. They found him eventually. I'm entirely clear on what went on with that.

Until next time...

AC

As many of you know, I'm currently teaching a special ed class in Moshi, Tanzania. And if you know me at all, you're probably just as shocked as I am that I was appointed such a postition. I have very limited experiece with children and NO experience with people with disabilities. The abilities of the students vary widely. Some have profound problems such as downs syndrome and some have more mild issues like ADD and dyslexia. One student was stood out to me was Bahati.

I'm not even sure why she is in this class. She's the one that has her assignment done before I'm finished passing them out. And she's the one that always has her hand up when I ask them a question. I thought there is no way she is being challenged enough in this school. So when I handed out today's assignment, I handed her a different one. I drew pictures of family members and animals and asked her to trace the corresponding word, and then write it again. Both in swahili and english. It was a bit tough for her at first, but she understood it after a while.

Its really and awesome feeling when you see the transformation you are making in another person's life. I don't feel the school is the best fit for her. She really should be in a regular primary school. She was a bit angry at me at first. This was all happening while the other kids were colouring. But I told her (in english, I'm only human people!) how well she was doing and how proud I am of her. I'm developing more worksheets for the coming weeks for her. She will be reading whole sentances by the time I'm done! Next, its spelling of numbers and verbs.

Bahati and I